Does Storing Furniture and Parking a Vehicle Satisfy the Owner-Occupancy Requirement ?

In In Re Appeal of Archdiocese of Philadelphia, 151 Pa. Commw. 480, 617 A.2d 821, 826 (Pa. Cmwlth. 1992), a church leased a building to an organization providing a shelter to pregnant women and their dependent children. In support of its claim that it occupied the property, the church noted that it parked a bus in the garage of the building and stored used furniture in the basement of the building during the lease. This Court held that merely parking a bus in the garage and storing furniture in the basement was not sufficient to satisfy the owner-occupancy requirement of Section 204(c). Id. at 824. The Court explained that "to clear the hurdle of 204(c), the property owner must prove its continuing right of possession and control, significant occupancy and active use of the major portion of the premises for its own charitable work in order to sustain an exemption when some portion of the property in question is rented." Id. at 825.